title: Reticulocytes in human preserved blood as control material for automated reticulocyte counters.
abstract: The authors studied the changes in the percentage of reticulocytes in blood preserved for three weeks. The samples were obtained from healthy adults and stored at 4 degrees C. An automated reticulocyte counter was used for measurements. After one week, the relative percentage of reticulocytes had decreased to around 80% of the initial value, and it reached 60% after three weeks of storage. When the y-axis of plots of the change against time was converted to a log scale, negative correlation was strong (r = -0.9972), and the curve was useful for estimation of the reticulocyte count in preserved blood. Stored blood might be used as a control material for reticulocyte counting by automated methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Laboratory Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tsuda
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tatsumi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001322:Autoanalysis; D001793:Blood Preservation; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D006801:Humans; D011786:Quality Control; D012156:Reticulocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D013997:Time Factors